NIACC expands online course options

MASON CITY, Iowa – An expansion is underway for online course options at a the North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC)

The college is partnering up with the Iowa Community College Online Consortium (ICCOC); a group that works to connect community colleges across the state of Iowa with more online curriculum.

The goal is to make as many resources as possible available for students, especially the ones who have part or full-time jobs in addition to school.

Faculty with the academic affairs office at NIACC tell us these classes will change the game for their busy students and it will help cut down on the stress of actually making it into the classroom.

Donna Orton, the interim Vice President for Academic Affairs says she has already started seeing a spike in interest from students, and believes these classes will be even more popular once the school season gets going.

“I think that as we continue to promote it, and students find classes that we don’t currently offer online, I think it will allow them opportunities that they have not had previously,” Orton says.

More and more schools are turning to online courses, and Orton believes this trend is something that will continue as time goes on.

“We see that more and more students are asking for different ways to learn,” she explains, “Online is certainly one of those opportunities for students.”

This partnership will add 60 classes to this list of online options, and Orton tells us that nearly all of them are hybrid courses, offered both online and in the classroom.

Fall registration for these classes is open now and the online curriculum will kick off in just a couple of weeks.